The present invention relates to a reversible thermosensitive recording material capable of recording images and erasing the same reversibly by utilizing its property that the transparency can be changed reversibly from a transparent state to an opaque state, and vice versa, depending upon the temperature thereof.
Conventionally there are proposed reversible thermosensitive recording materials capable of performing such reversible recording and deleting images, which comprise a support and a reversible thermosensitive recording layer in which an organic low-molecular-weight material, such as a higher alcohol and a high fatty acid, is dispersed in a resin such as polyester and polyamide, as disclosed, for example, in Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application Nos. 54-119377 and 55-154198. In these reversible thermosensitive recording materials, the property that the transparency of the recording layer changes in accordance with the temperature thereof is utilized for forming images and erasing the same in the recording layer.
Such conventional reversible thermosensitive recording materials, however, have the shortcoming that the range of the transparent state in terms of the temperature is as narrow as 2.degree. to 4.degree. C. Therefore it is difficult to control the temperature at which a partially opaque reversible thermosensitive recording material is totally changed to an transparent state, or a totally opaque reversible thermosensitive recording material is made partially transparent to form transparent images thereof. Furthermore, the conventional reversible thermosensitive recording materials have the shortcoming that the temperature at which the recording materials reversibly change from a transparent state to an opaque state or vice versa is 70.degree. C. or less, so that the transparent state, when preserved, becomes partially or entirely opaque with time.